Why Australia Should Stop Abstaining and Stand Alongside Israel at UN

Every year, the Victorian Division of the Liberal Party meets at State Council to elect office bearers and debate policy motions. The 2018 meeting took place over 28-29 April, with over 1200 delegates participating.

On behalf of the Caulfield State Electorate Conference, I moved this motion, which was overwhelmingly supported:

“That this State Council calls upon the Federal Government to vote alongside Israel and the US and cease abstaining at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, or any other UN forum, on motions that are critical of Israel including its right to name Jerusalem as its capital city.”

A great many of us have had a gutful of the United Nations’ relentless attacks on Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign and Jewish State.

Late last week, I returned from a trip to the Holy Land. With my own eyes, I viewed the archaeological relics that prove Jews lived in Jerusalem over two thousand years ago. I stood in a sixteenth century synagogue. My hands touched the Western Wall – the last remaining part of the second Jewish temple: the holiest site in Judaism.

And yet UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural organisation, has recently passed two resolutions, rejecting any historical connection between Jerusalem and Judaism. The resolutions claim Jerusalem is a city solely relevant to Muslims, which is curious given Jerusalem isn’t mentioned in the Quran once.

Why did Australia vote to abstain on these ridiculous motions? We should not have abstained, we should have voted no. Are we Israel’s close friend or not?

It is Israel’s right to choose its’ capital city. Every other country in the world – including all the dictatorships and rogue nations have their chosen capital cities recognised by the UN – why not sovereign and democratic Israel? Why is the world’s only Jewish state the only country to be targeted?

It was pleasing to see, after this motion was submitted to the State Council Agenda Committee, that Australia voted against an absurd UN Human Rights Council resolution, critical of Israel. That’s a good start.

If Australia is to be taken seriously on the world stage, we must act consistently with our democratic principles. Standing with Israel, standing for the truth – there can be no better of example of acting with honour and integrity. Abstaining is a cowardly cop-out.

The Liberal Party is now Australia’s only truly Zionist political party, unlike the Australian Labor Party increasingly pandering to its growing Western Sydney-based Muslim branches, and the Greens, who can be blatantly anti-Semitic.

A Liberal National Coalition government should stand with Israel; it should stand on its own principles: freedom, fairness and the rule of law.

The United Nations created the State of Israel seventy years ago. Australia was the first country to vote yes. And now, when the UN is trying to tear Israel apart, we should vote no. Australia should not be complicit in the UN’s disgusting betrayal of the Jewish people.

Kate Ashmor is a Melbourne-based lawyer, company director, columnist, passionate Zionist and a member of the Victorian Liberal Party.
Twitter: @KateAshmor

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